Enjoy a one-hour tour focusing on neoclassicism and romanticism in the Getty's collection by exploring the art and culture of these related and distinctive movements of the 18th- and 19th-centuries. Meet at the Museum Information Desk.

Exhibitions

Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910–1917Daily through April 19, 2009Research Institute Exhibition Gallery, Getty Center

Drawing principally from the Getty Research Institute's superb collection of Russian modernist books, Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910–1917 brings into focus a brief, but tumultuous period when Russian visual artists and poets, including Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich, Alexei Kruchenykh, and Velimir Khlebnikov, challenged Symbolism and revolutionized book art. They fabricated pocket-sized, hand-lithographed books and juxtaposed primitive and abstract imagery with a transrational poetry they called zaum'("beyonsense"). The exhibition traces the avant-garde's use of the materials of their book art—imagery, language and its sounds, design, graphic technique—to convey humor, parody, and an intriguing ambivalence and apprehension about Russia's past, present, and future.
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Dialogue among Giants: Carleton Watkins and the Rise of Photography in CaliforniaDaily through March 1, 2009Center for Photographs, Getty Center

Dialogue among Giants presents the photographs of Carleton Watkins (American, 1829–1916) in the context of the birth and evolution of photography in California. The exhibition considers the social, political, economic, and artistic developments in California between the time of statehood in 1850 and the mid-1880s. It includes approximately 150 works, from daguerreotypes by unknown makers to mammoth-plate photographs by Watkins and his contemporaries.

The Belles Heures of the Duke of BerryDaily through February 8, 2009Museum Galleries, Getty Center

The Belles Heures of John, Duke of Berry is one of the most beloved books of the Middle Ages and one of the most sumptuous. Painted by the Limbourg brothers when the art of manuscript illumination in France reached new heights of elegance and sophistication, the book, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will be presented with its individual leaves unbound. The resulting display offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the visitor to walk through the book to view all of its major miniatures, a unique gallery of paintings of sublime beauty.

In the late sixteenth century, a small group of artists from Bologna changed the course of art history. This exhibition tells the extraordinary story of the Carracci family, who reinvigorated the art of painting with tremendous energy and vitality. Their achievement set standards that remained authoritative for more than two centuries. A selection of key works by the Carracci and their followers brings this artistic triumph to life. Twenty-seven of them—most never exhibited before in North America—are on loan from the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, one of the world's premier collections of old master paintings. This exhibition has been co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Mastering the depiction of the human figure has long been a cornerstone of an artist's training. This survey of drawings from the 1300s to the 1800s examines how the rediscovery classical sculpture influenced the ways in which artists rendered the human form. A selection of Italian, Flemish, Dutch, Swiss, French, and British drawings illustrates the powerful aesthetic, philosophical, and political forces that informed the representation of the classical figure.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s European artists made a formal practice of working outdoors in the clear, pure light of the Italian countryside, transcribing the atmosphere and depth of picturesque landscape views. Originally intended as studies for more formal, idealized studio paintings, the sketches they created are today considered highly satisfying works of art in their own right. This concise survey exhibition features recent acquisitions by artists such as Jean-Victor Bertin, Jean-Joseph Xavier Bidauld, Camille Corot, Simon Denis, and Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, supplemented by loans from local collections.

The emperor Commodus is considered one of Rome's "mad monarchs," his presumed insanity attributed to his activities in the arena and self identification with Hercules. Olivier Hekster, author of Commodus: An Emperor at the Crossroads, argues that Commodus' behavior should be seen as an attempt to win the support of soldiers and the common people of Rome—a tactic that was remarkably successful. Senators felt excluded, leading them to distort Commodus' actions in their writings, resulting in his negative reputation.

This 20-minute gallery talk introduces ways of looking at ancient art through an in-depth exploration of one object in the collection. This month the featured object is a Roman marble statue of Leda and the Swan from A.D. 1–100. Space is limited. Sign up at the Tour Meeting Place outside the Museum Entrance 15 minutes before the talk.

This exhibition presents new works and poetry by Jim Dine based on ancient Greek sculptures in the Museum's collection. The first contemporary art project at the Getty Villa, this installation illustrates the continuing influence of antiquity on living artists.

Reconstructing Identity: A Statue of a God from DresdenDaily through June 1, 2009Museum, Floor 2, Getty Villa

This exhibition examines the restoration history of a Roman statue from the Dresden State Art Collections. Since its discovery in the 1600s, the figure has been successively restored as Alexander the Great, Bacchus, and Antinous in the guise of the wine god. Damaged in World War II, the sculpture was recently reassembled by Getty and Dresden conservators.

The Getty Commodus: Roman Portraits and Modern CopiesDaily through June 1, 2009Getty Villa

The Getty's marble bust of the Roman emperor Commodus was acquired in 1992 as an Italian work of the 1500s, but specialists later proposed that it may be from the second century A.D. Putting the object in context with Roman portraits and modern copies from the Mannerist and Neoclassical periods, this exhibition shows how curators and conservators have determined the sculpture's date.